As reported in our last e-bulletin, an event was held by the City Council's Community Services Directorate to discuss changes in the way adult day centre services will be contracted, with greater emphasis on more personalised services (and some switching of resources to this) and new commissioning mechanisms being planned instead of block contracts, bringing greater financial uncertainty for providers.

The meeting was positive and Compact principles were directly cited by commissioners, in particular the need to share risk fairly. Whilst normal rules will apply to the procurement process itself, arrangements can still be put in place to help providers on block contracts to manage the changes brought about by the new arrangements, either in the switchover to call-off frameworks or in leaving the market if the provision is no longer financially viable. In particular, the Council was clear that it does not see call-off frameworks as a ‘one size fits all' solution and that it will apply a range of contracting mechanisms to different circumstances, which should go a considerable way towards resolving the concerns previously raised by providers and reported in our April e-bulletin. Coventry's Compact has also been successfully used to resolve one specific situation (outside of the Community Services Directorate) to the satisfaction of all parties.

Equally within the spirit of Compact, providers of day services for their part also recognised the severity of the financial climate and their need to share risk by diversifying their income, for example by marketing to and attracting more self-funded clients and / or using their buildings to generate income in other ways. Although the transition will not necessarily be easy, those that can adapt will be in a stronger position by having spread their risk better, and the changes will bring new providers into the market.